Graduate Center Digital Initiatives (GCDI) Spring Workshops

January 31, 2024 Amanda Rajnauth

GC Digital Fellows Spring 2024 Workshops

These workshops are designed to help students:

expand the number of ways that they can collect, organize, process, and share their research materials;
create an academic web presence and publication outlet for themselves and their scholarship;
discover new ways of conducting research using emerging digital tools;
learn how to use programming languages to streamline repetitive tasks and analyze data;
build new forms of communicating research that include data visualizations, mapping, and dynamic multimedia.

All the workshops are free and open to all GC students, faculty, and staff. If these workshops don’t work for you due to timing or conflicts, there are other ways to learn with the GC Digital Fellows. You might want to check out this “back to school” post to learn more about how to make use of all the GC Digital Fellows have to offer.

So You Want to Build a Digital Archive? with Silvia Rivero Alfaro

Thursday Feb 8^th,3 p.m. – *in-person* – register at this link

In this in-person workshop participants will have the opportunity to work hands-on to decide what kind of project they want to create, learn about different software options and technical considerations before they get started. The workshop takes into consideration questions such as how to plan the archive thinking of sustainability.

Beginning Game Design with Python with Zach Lloyd

Monday Feb 19th 3 p.m. – online – register at this link

Level up your Python programming skills by creating a simple computer game! In this workshop you will be introduced to Pygame, a free and open-source library for creating computer games in Python. Specifically, you will create a simple “Frogger” style game that will introduce you to the following concepts: drawing text and graphics to the screen, capturing keyboard input and representing movement, creating basic collision detection, increasing difficulty, and implementing game loops with win/lose conditions. Because we will not have time to cover all of the fundamentals, it is necessary to have at least some previous Python programming experience. This workshop will work in VSCode and the game assets (e.g., graphics) will be provided for you.

ChatGPT, friend or foe? with Leanne Fan

Thursday March 7th, 6 p.m. – online – register at this link

It’s been a year since the headlines of the AI takeover shook us to our core. We might be settling into a plateau of skeptical productivity or quiet Cthulhucene horror. Come and share how ChatGPT has affected your own research and teaching experiences, and learn how others have resisted and embraced this tool. The workshop will include a Python coding demonstration, so some basic Python skills are welcome but absolutely not necessary.

Creating Maps in QGIS with Anna Schlenz

Wednesday March 13th, 6 p.m. – *in-person* – register at this link

Are you interested in exploring ways to visualize data? In this intro-level workshop to mapping, you will take your first steps toward creating your own maps and visualizing spatial data. You will be familiarized with foundational mapping concepts and terms, learn how to find spatial data relevant to your specific needs, and practicing combining spatial data into a map using QGIS, an open source spatial analytics and visualization software.

Creating a Digital Archive using CUNY Academic Commons with Tuka Al-Sahlani

Tuesday April 16th, 6 p.m. – online – register at this link

In this virtual workshop participants will learn to create a digital archive using our in house open source platform: CUNY Academic Commons. This workshop will explore the best themes for digital archiving, learn to embed material such as images, tables, etc, and explore metadate plugins. Some knowledge of the CUNY Academic Commons will be helpful. An active account on the CUNY Academic Commons is required.